Worthing boss Adam Hinshelwood praises his frontline after Folkestone Invicta

Adam Hinshelwood has praised Worthing's frontline, which he called 'a real threat'.
Worthing manager Adam HinshelwoodWorthing manager Adam Hinshelwood
Worthing manager Adam Hinshelwood

Reece Meekums’ late strike secured the Mackerel Men’s entertaining 3-2 win against Folkestone Invicta in the Bostik Premier Division at Woodside Road on Saturday.

Sam Rents had previously twice pulled Worthing level, first by curling home his second free-kick in two games, then crossing in for Invicta captain Callum Davies to poke into his own net.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Manager Hinshelwood said he was ‘delighted’ to have Meekums back for a month on loan from Conference side Bromley: “We could see he hadn’t been involved much at Bromley so we just got in contact with his agent to see if he was injured or just a case of him being out of favour there. We were lucky enough to make the call at the right time and I’m delighted to have him back here for a month.

“He’s played quite a few minutes with Zack [Newton] and Jesse [Starkey] and he knows David Ajiboye, Callum Kealy, and Danny Barker from Brighton too.

“They were all together in the youth team at Brighton so they know each other really well and it’s easy for him to come back in.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hinshelwood fielded an attacking line-up for the Bostik tie, with last season’s front trio of Meekums, Starkey, and Newton playing alongside top-scorer Ajiboye.

But it was left-back Rents who provided the most attacking inspiration, creating two equalisers after Kane Rowland and then Ronnie Dolan put Invicta ahead.

Hinshelwood spoke highly of the full-back and his newfound set-piece form after he had also scored a free-kick against Burgess Hill in the FA Trophy the week before:

He said: “He’s got such a good left foot - you can tell he’s been a pro in his delivery from set-pieces. He’s got that in the locker so whenever we get a free-kick around the box we know we’ve got half a chance of scoring.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Worthing boss was also pleased with his team’s belief, despite a long injury list containing regulars like Aarran Racine, Alfie Young, and Joel Colbran: “We had a bit of a patched-up back line - we had Alex Parsons playing right-back and James Crane playing centre-half - but full credit to the team. We kept going and there’s lots of belief in them.

“There was plenty of movement and on another day it could’ve been more comfortable. We’ll assess it, learn, and get better in the coming week like this group does.”

Worthing host Evesham in the FA Trophy on Saturday.

Worthing: Perntreou, Parsons, Rents, Budd, Crane, Miles, Ajiboye, Barker, Newton, Meekums, Starkey. Subs: Clarke (Meekums), Rance, Aguiar, Skerry, Kealy (Starkey) Att: 951